This, despite the fact that a primary Dawson College public domain may remain compromised following a 2011 incursion by an unknown hacker named “iskorpitx.” That hacker appears to have successfully uploaded a ‘Shell’ to the domain, leaving a public ‘f** file’ alerting administrators of the site that a successful incursion had taken place.

The link was publicly recorded in Aug., 2011 at open source mirror frequented by #AntiSec factions, who frequently record f** files to independents, who then confirm, store and register the hack with public search engines indicating a given domain has been compromised.

In hacking terms a ‘shell’ is loosely used to describe a script that, once uploaded to a web server, provides a command line interface to the compromised system with extensive system-level access to all records, data and nodes attached to the system regardless of the level of password protection offered by the website.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, senior Halifax-based security researchers described the revelation that a confirmed ‘f** file’ from 2011 is still in place on a public facing College server more than a year after it was uploaded as shocking and alarming.

“Nobody here can believe that, on the one hand, the CEGEP has the arrogance to expel this student … But, on the other, not even know about a publicly compromised webserver on its domain … In my opinion, the existence of an f-file that old and the events leading up to the expulsion of Mr Al-Khabaz represent a pattern of un-ethical and completely inadequate IT security practice at Dawson College.”

“Shelling happens frequently on busy public servers – standard operating procedure in any professional organization is to assume the attack has successfully rooted the operating system and bleach the server outright, alerting anyone who has credentials on the box or website and begin again, usually on a new domain/IP and patched architecture.”

“Doing otherwise indicates a complete disregard for the privacy of every user and every other admin on the domain as demanded by federal and provincial law.”

In addition to awarding Hamed zeroes across his academic record, permanently tarring his official transcript, the Province of Quebec has summarily ordered that Al-Khabaz refund all bursaries immediately.